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Coin Highlights

2015 Proof Sterling Silver Crown - Dished Coin

Issued on behalf of the Ascension Island

Issue: 10,000

Unique presentation box and certificate

Also available in Uncirculated Cupro Nickel

Description

To celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the Signing of the Magna Carta, Pobjoy Mint is delighted to announce the release of a stunning new commemorative dished coin on behalf of the Ascension Island Government.

The Magna Carta is one of the most well-known documents in English History and it was sealed on 15th June 1215 under oath by King John at Runnymede on the bank of the River Thames near Windsor, England.

In the 14th Century, Parliament saw it as guaranteeing trial by jury and it has resonant echoes in the American Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Only four examples of the original 1215 text remain, all of which are located in England and this year all four surviving copies have been brought together to celebrate the Anniversary.

The design on the coin is based on the domed memorial at Runnymede in England which contains a pillar of English granite upon which is inscribed ‘To commemorate the Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom under Law. The domed roof showing the stars can be seen with the central pillar leading down. King John’s original seal with shown within the roof with a ribbon curling down the pillar. Available in Cupro Nickel and Proof Sterling Silver, the coin has been produced as a partially dished coin to replicate the domed roof of the memorial.

The obverse of the coin features an effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS with each precious Pobjoy Proof Finish.

Magna Carta was not meant to be a lasting declaration of legal principle but was a practical solution to a political crisis which served the interests of the Barons of the time by reasserting the power of custom to limit the tyrannical behaviour of King John. The document was written on parchment, the normal writing material at the time. It was authenticated with the Great Seal of King John. Three of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta have lost their wax seals over the centuries.

Only three of the original clauses in the Magna Carta are still law: the Freedom of the English Church; the Ancient Liberties of the City of London; and the third, and most important one that ‘No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will we not pass on him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not defer to any man either Justice or Right’. – in essence, everyone has the right to a fair trial. This clause was given no prominence at the time but its adaptability has allowed following generations to interpret it.